Well, I logged my last 20 mile run before the marathon today. It's hard to believe the race is just 3 weeks away! I'm pretty much freaking out about the whole concept and I'm sure that's only going to get worse. The emotion is very strange. On one hand, I just want it to get here so I can get on with it. On the other hand, I've got so much anxiety and fear of the unknown that I hope the day never comes.
It was nice to be back with Stephanie's group again this morning. There was a slight miscommunication about the start time for today's run that caused me some concern this morning and led to my speeding to Memorial Park for the start. But, alas, the start time was 5:30 as usual instead of the 5:15 that I read in an email this morning ... at 4:45 ... when I wasn't prepared to leave and it takes at least 30 minutes to get there.
Running this morning were Randy, Stephanie, Josh, Chris, Shellie, and me. Thankfully, Shellie put water and Gatorade out at the 8 mile mark for us. The group was scheduled for 16 miles but I had 20 on my schedule. I felt really good through 10 miles and the pace was exactly where I wanted it to be 8:46. I struggled to stay with the group at the pace for another 4 miles when they picked it up for their final 2 miles. From the point they left me, my pace progressively fell off as I worked my way back to the park then went around the loop and a half for the extra miles to get 20 miles. Final result:
20.06 miles @ 9:00 (3:00:34)
Frankly, I don't know what to think. I would really like to have a better sense of what I'm really capable of running in St. George. It seems that's critical for pacing. But I honestly have no idea. It seems my projected time could span a range of 45 minutes. What does the altitude do to me? What does the 2,700 foot drop in elevation mean? What about the temperature and humidity I've been training in, shouldn't I benefit from closer to ideal conditions at the race? What about the "race magic" that seems to happen for most runners? How will the taper in training impact how I feel? I have no clue what the answers to these questions might be. It's all just a great unknown. Today I felt great for 10 miles, okay for 4-5, and not-so-good for 5-6 miles. If I project that same sensation over to race day, it's extremely difficult for me to imagine 10 miles (1:20 - 1:30 ???) of not-so-good. I like to imagine that somehow the first 20 miles of the marathon go by like the first 10 miles did today then get the last 6.2 while I'm feeling pretty good and have the opportunity to push it a bit at the end. No matter what my finish time, I don't want to be shuffling my feet across the finish line. I want to have the strength to raise my arms and put together some semblance of a kick to the line.
I'm toying with the idea of signing up for a pacing group. But how do I know which group to sign up for? If I choose too fast of a group - knowing myself as I do - when they pull away somewhere along the course, I'll wilt and go into survival mode. Somehow that scenario just mentally demoralizes me. If I choose to slow of a group, it seems I'd be happy to settle in with their pace and finish strong but have the nagging regret that I could have gone faster. Why has this turned into such a mental game? You'd think I was preparing for the world championship of chess or something!
Well, I suppose that's about it for now. I also suppose with today's run behind me, I've entered the tapering phase of my training.
Aah, a footnote - as I was stretching in the parking lot after my run, I witnessed two cars back into each other. It happened about 40' from where I was standing. The drivers had very different views of what occurred. I probably made a huge mistake but I gave each of them my business card. The guy wanted me to commit to whose fault it was. I just told him that I couldn't really say. Before leaving the lot, I took about half a dozen quick photos with my Palm. As I was leaving, a mounted police officer arrived on the scene. I have an opinion of what happened but I'll set that aside and just describe the facts as I saw the scene play out. Someone else can decide who was at fault! Hopefully I'm not called on as a witness.
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